The Good ‘Ole Days
September 21st, 2009 by Assorter
Was watching this video on YouTube earlier:
I think this comment sums of my feelings best: “... all I need is the quiet humming of my old 386 Dx 33 and I’m back in my childhood…“
Archive for the 'Sci-Fi' Category
My thoughts on the Star Trek movie
May 17th, 2009 by Assorter
As I am a self-professed Star Trek geek who jumps at every opportunity to rattle off voluminous amounts of Star Trek minutiae, a lot of my friends have been asking me for my thoughts on the new Star Trek movie. So, here are my neatly-arranged and spell-checked thoughts. Warnings: spoilers and excessive geekiness ahead.
Kicks from Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
January 25th, 2009 by Assorter
This weekend, I burst into joyous rapture on two separate occasions listening to two different episodes of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me. Impressive, isn’t it?
First. I was listening to the January 18, 2009 podcast, and during the first segment, the caller was given a trivia question about Ricardo Montablan’s unfortunate recent passing. After the caller answered, Peter Sagal launched into his usual background and banter on Montablan and at one point noted that he played the over-the-top villain in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. At that point, the always-entertaining Charlie Pierce chimed in and noted “and in the Original Series episode Space Seed,” and then almost immediately someone from the crowd shouted “YEAH!!!” in an obvious display intended to both congratulate Pierce for knowing that Montablan appeared in a Star Trek episode, and, of course, show some solidarity among Star Trek fans! Simply awesome. If you want to listen, the segment starts around 7 minutes into the show.
Second. This one is from yesterday’s (January 24, 2009) show. At about 3 minutes and 45 seconds into the show, Sagal notes that he still feels like he’s in a science fiction movie when he says “President Obama.” To demonstrate this feeling, he exclaimed “President Obama promised a strong response to the invasion of the Corellian fleet!” Did you catch it? It’s a reference to Star Wars.
In short, these guys are geeks. What a great show.
Make It So!
February 2nd, 2008 by Assorter
Podcasts are cool. Star Trek is cool. What happens when you combine the two?
You get Simply Syndicated’s Make It So. Make It So (in addition to being Jean-Luc Picard’s famous catch phrase – or is that “engage”?) is basically two British blokes talking Star Trek. Topics range from the best episode from the first season of Star Trek the Next Generation to the best first officer ever. It’s pretty entertaining. Be warned: they swear from time to time.
Star Trek teaser trailer and thoughts
January 21st, 2008 by Assorter
The Star Trek community is abuzz over the newly released Star Trek Teaser trailer that is now running with J.J. Abrams’s newest film, Cloverfield. The video is available at the movie’s website:
It was . . . very stimulating
January 13th, 2007 by Assorter
From time to time, I’ve mentioned to people that I think Michael Dorn is one of the luckiest men alive. Here’s why.
Conventions, Trips, and Planes, oh my
October 15th, 2006 by Assorter
As I write this, the Seahawks are mounting what looks to be a thrilling fourth quarter come-from-behind victory against the Rams, and the sun is emerging from clouds that have blanketted Seattle all weekend.
Chicago, we’ll see you in the playoffs.
Anyway, it’s time for some updates. First, I’ve (finally) uploaded pictures from the Star Trek convention I went to about a month ago. Head on over to the gallery to check them out (note: the album is limited to registered users).
Second, I was in L.A. a couple weeks ago for my cousin’s birthday. I snapped a lot of pictures that I’m … sure I’ll be uploading in due course (which, as you can see from above, probably translates to about a month late… but better late than never!)
Finally, I attended my first Airline convention yesterday! It was at the Museum of Flight, and I added a couple models to the collection – a Thai A340-600, and a United Airlines Cargo DC-10-30. My United collection is now up to 58 pieces. It may be time to upload some pictures soon.
Well, I’m spent.
Destination: Convention
September 10th, 2006 by Assorter
Yesterday, I attended my first ever Star Trek convention right here in Seattle. The convention commemorated Star Trek’s 40th Anniversary and was definitely quite a hoot. I know I promised a lot of people pictures of the event (and they’ll be up in due course) but before I post them, I wanted to write a quick commentary on the centerpiece of these Star Trek Conventions: the actors.
Here’s a quote from a CNN article that seems to sum it up nicely:
After innumerable anniversaries, interviews, conventions, books, press junkets, red carpet arrival lines, DVD featurettes and commentaries, it’s abundantly clear: They are so over “Star Trek.”
The article contains a video link to an interview CNN attempted to do with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, and if you watch it, the meaning of the quoted passage above becomes clear. Both actors are constantly interrupting the questioner, cracking jokes here and there, and basically acting completely irreverent and almost foolish. In fact, it appears that the whole interview is so trivial to Shatner and Nimoy that when they do decide to give a serious answer, they actually point out the fact that they’re going to give a serious answer for once (doesn’t happen that often, though)
And you know what? They’re absolutely justified.
40 years is a long time to be picked, prodded, questioned, and revered, by generations of fans who love hearing Walter Koening say “nuclear wessels” and Leonard Nimony flash the vulcan greeting, especially when the actors don’t feel as though Star Trek was the best place for them to flourish artistically. Why should someone spend 40 years in the lime light, they wonder, for saying “aye captain!” And they’re probably right. And now, 40 years later, all of them have long moved on to other creative projects where they have been given the opportunity to develop as artists, and they’re justifiably sick and tired of legions of fans fixating on something they did years ago that doesn’t even represent their best work.
Case in point: At the convention yesterday, Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes took center stage late in the afternoon to do their “convention thing.” Just like Nimoy and Shatner, however, they were constantly interjecting in the middle of a question, cracking jokes that were rather racy at times (but funny!) To be fair though, Frakes and Sirtis were both immensely entertaining, and are not quite as fargone in their “Trek-itis” as Shatner and Nimoy obviously are (they still have about 20 years to go).
The truth is, these actors are so sick of Star Trek that the only way they can maintain their sanity through a convention or an interview is to constantly crack jokes and maintain a sense of humor of it all. And I can’t say I blame them. 40 years is a long time to be harped on something that you’ve long since moved on from, especially when it’s not your best work. So, even though I want to be a little disappointed with the blaze attitude many, if not all, of the Star Trek actors have towards the franchise that made them so popular, you have to admit that they’ve definitely put in their dues with the fans.
For better or for worse, for these actors, it seems that this too, shall not pass.
Can’t Get Enough of Star Trek
August 31st, 2006 by Assorter
There’s a Star Trek convention of sorts coming up in Seattle in a week or so. I’m very tempted to pay the three-digit price to obtain a ticket and spend an evening atop the space needle celebrating one of my favorite hobbies of all time.
Some celebratory videos:
Star Trek 40th Anniversary Video Tribute
It’s the Enterprise…
And for the “Niners” out there 
Done and Done
August 1st, 2006 by Assorter
I’m very happy to say that that bar exam has come and gone. All it took was a healthy laptop, three days’ worth of packed lunches, and nerves of steel. With the bar now behind me, I’ve never been so happy at the idea of having time to run errands and do tasks around the apartment.
This morning, I started browsing through some of my Calvin and Hobbes books, for no particular reason other than the fact that I HAVE THE TIME. Got some great laughs, too. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Calvin and Hobbes, or who know of it but have never read any of the strips, I highly recommend stopping at amazon.com and purchasing a book or two – you won’t regret it. Calvin and Hobbes is probably one of the most insightful and creative comic strips conceived, and it’s a shame (yet somehow appropriate) that the creator decided to step down due to his aversion to commercialism and licensing.
Frankly, if anyone who created anything stuck to his/her principles as much as Bill Watterson did when it came to their creations, there would probably be no such thing as jumping the shark. Would Star Trek (either as a television series, movie, or both) still be alive and kicking today had the writers/producers stuck to their principles and refused to acknowledge that Jeri Ryan in skin-tight spandex was really what Star Trek needed? Would we have been subjected to the god-awful last 2-3 seasons of X-Files if the writers could had actually tried to create new story arcs and interesting characters rather give in to the demands of 20th Century Fox? Do I even need to begin a rant on Seinfeld?
“I don’t need to compromise my principles, because they don’t have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway.” So true.